Prospective Sastrugi Press Authors

For new Sastrugi Press authors, finding the right tools to guide writing can be difficult. There are two books we highly recommend you read and apply, both for fiction and nonfiction. They will help you understand character, dramatic structure, and what keeps a reader turning pages.

Purchase and read them – they will enrich your writing like nothing else. Even one is titled for nonfiction and the other fiction, both will dramatically improve your writing. Both are available on Amazon.

Weak Words List

House Style for Text

For ordinals (2nd, 11th, 1st and so on), please disable the superscript option if you are using Word to write your manuscript. It’s under the Tools menu in Word. Having the letters as superscript makes the leading (spacing) between lines on a page uneven. Many first-time Sastrugi Press authors struggle with this.

Most grammar & style books, including the Chicago Style Manual, appear to avoid the issue. When we import your text for layout, all superscripts will have to be fixed.

Word has a default setting to change apostrophes and quotes to smart quotes, something you may not intend. Watch out for them. They can cause your text to read improperly. Please refer to Lynch’s The English Language guide for further discussion.